


Your Son

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic [97]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: BAMF Rodney McKay, Fatherhood, M/M, Prompt Fill, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7558177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>LJ Comment Fic for YA Book Titles prompt: <i>Stargate: Atlantis, any, A Monster Calls</i></p><p>In which the author finally reveals AJ's origin story, which involves much freaking out, drama and heroic rescuing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Son

**Author's Note:**

  * For [popkin16](https://archiveofourown.org/users/popkin16/gifts).



> For the ever wonderful, super sweet Queen of Comments on her birthday. ::hugs::

It was an ambush, plain and simple.

Rodney didn’t know what he’d been expecting when he was called to Woolsey’s office, but it certainly wasn’t Dr. Ramesh, the base psychologist, or Sheppard, who was looking at him with a hooded expression.

“What is this? Some kind of intervention? Because I know I’ve been working long hours lately, but it’s very –”

“Rodney.” Just one word, but Sheppard was able to stop Rodney’s rambling defense before it really got rolling.

“Dr. McKay, we have a bit of a situation.” Woolsey gestured at the empty seat next to Dr. Ramesh.

Rodney sat, but only after another assessing look at Sheppard. The man was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and he was giving Rodney absolutely nothing to go on to determine his mood or state of mind. It didn’t bode well.

“Let me get right to the point,” Woolsey said. “The Athosians received a message, which they relayed to the Alpha Site. It was in turn delivered to me.”

“Could I possibly get the short version of this, Richard? I have a lot of work to do.” 

“Play it,” Sheppard said.

Woolsey set something on his desk, a flat metal disc with a slight depression in the center. He pressed a finger to the depression and an image appeared, wavering and grainy, of a woman with short-cropped blonde hair.

“Is that a hologram? That’s –”

 _Dr. Rodney McKay_ , the woman in the hologram said. _I am Claria Olen. I represent a group of people who demand access and entry into the city of the Ancients, which rightfully belongs to us._

“Who is she?” Rodney asked. “A Genii wannabe?”

She was certainly dressed the part, her outfit suggesting more than a passing resemblance to a military uniform.

_To that end, I offer you a trade. Your child for Atlantis._

“What? My what?”

In the hologram, the woman accepted something from just out of frame. A baby. A very tiny baby.

_If you don’t keep up your end, you’ll never get the opportunity to meet your son. We’ll be in touch._

The hologram flickered off, but Rodney kept staring at the space where it had been, trying to make sense of it. Claria and her group weren’t the only ones who thought they had some sort of claim on Atlantis, by virtue of being native to the Pegasus galaxy. Rodney had to give them points for originality, though.

“Well, that’s new. So how big a threat do we think this woman is?” Again, Rodney looked to Sheppard, and again there was no answer to be had there.

“Dr. McKay,” Ramesh said in his lilting accent. “We need to discuss the child.”

“Why? I’m not a social worker. It’s more important to do a threat assessment. Right, Sheppard?” Rodney was starting to get a bad feeling. It was coming at him from all sides: Woolsey’s somber expression, Ramesh’s soothing tone, Sheppard’s stony silence.

“The hologram wasn’t the only thing they sent,” Woolsey said.

Ramesh put a slender hand on Rodney’s arm. “There was a DNA sample, Dr. McKay. There is no easy way to say this, but you _are_ that child’s father.”

“Congratulations,” Sheppard said, and there it was. The first show of emotion since Rodney had come into the room. Anger, of course.

Rodney shook his head. “No. There must be some mistake. I obviously don’t have any kids.”

“There is no mistake, Dr. McKay. Dr. Keller tested the sample many times.”

“You can’t trust Jennifer!” Rodney protested. “She hates me!”

Woolsey gave him a stern look. “I have no doubts about Dr. Keller’s professionalism.”

“But I’m no-one’s father! It’s physically impossible for me to be someone’s father!” Rodney popped up out of the chair, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. “How? How could this happen?”

Sheppard huffed out a breath. “Well, you see, when a man and a woman reach a certain age –”

“That’s quite enough, Colonel,” Woolsey said sharply. “Dr. McKay, the fact of the matter is that this woman and her group have a child that shares half your DNA. Since you clearly don’t know who the mother is, we need to move on to the next step.”

“I can’t deal with this right now. I have work to do.” Rodney fled.

*o*o*o*

Rodney locked himself in his lab for the rest of the day, though he didn’t even pretend to try and get any work done. A baby. How had that happened? It wasn’t like he’d been Kirk-ing his way around Pegasus, spreading his seed. Although John was so angry, maybe he thought that was case, which was ridiculous. The most sex Rodney’d had since coming to Atlantis had been with John.

A baby. What the hell was he supposed to do with a baby? Sure, Teyla had Torren running amok in the halls and he seemed to be doing fine. And Radek’s wife was pregnant. Again. He seemed to be juggling fatherhood and work pretty well, though once Valentina had a brother or sister that might change. Two had to be harder, right?

Rodney had no idea how long he’d been puzzling over the baby problem before Sheppard barged in, overriding the lock and settling his narrow ass on Rodney’s work station.

“We need to talk about this,” said the man who never wanted to talk about anything, ever.

“What do you want me to say?” Rodney asked defensively, arms crossed over his chest. “Sorry for being a sperm donor? I don’t remember doing it!”

Sheppard nodded. “M44-P37.”

Rodney just stared at him. “What?”

“The mission you went on with Lorne’s team, when I was laid up with the thing and they needed you to assess some tech.”

That sparked something in Rodney’s memory. “Of course! The apple wine! They got us all doped up on that apple wine! Man, I must’ve been out of it to have sex and not remember. Wait. That was before we even started this…thing. Relationship. Whatever. Why are you mad at me?”

Mr. Talkative didn’t seem much like engaging in conversation suddenly. He just shrugged, his eyes downcast. Rodney tried to think about how he’d feel, learning Sheppard had kids out there in the world, and maybe he got it. A little. That didn’t mean he felt like apologizing for something he didn’t even remember doing.

“Has anyone dialed them up?” Rodney asked, suddenly remembering that babies generally had two parents. “Where’s the mother?”

Sheppard shook his head. “There’s nothing there. We think they got culled.”

“But…the baby.”

“Best we can figure is she either joined up with Claria’s crew prior to that, or she was forcibly removed.”

Rodney nodded. “If it was the latter, it begs the question of how Claria knew the baby was mine.”

Sheppard looked up at him. “You have a son, Rodney. That’s…it’s a really big deal.”

There was something in his eyes that Rodney couldn’t read, and he wondered if this baby thing was dredging up Sheppard’s daddy issues. And then he replayed Sheppard’s words in his head. _You have a son_.

“Oh, god. I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Sheppard slid off the work station and into Rodney’s lap, pulling him into a hug and rubbing his back.

“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

Rodney wasn’t sure he believed him.

*o*o*o*

The team rendezvoused with Claria at a neutral location. They went in on foot, as she’d demanded, but that didn’t mean they’d gone alone. Lorne and his team were in a cloaked ‘jumper right behind them, and Rodney had taken some extra precautions of his own. He might not have the first clue about being a father, but he was damn sure not going to leave his _son_ in the hands of some lunatic fringe to be raised as his enemy; he had enough family issues already.

“You were told to come unarmed,” Claria said. She and five of her compatriots stood facing the Gate, and from what Rodney could see they were armed to the teeth. He didn’t see the baby anywhere.

“If you were hoping for hostages, I’m sorry to disillusion you,” Sheppard replied. He was hiding behind his aviator glasses, but Rodney could hear the steel in his voice. It made him stiffen his own spine in response.

“So you’ve come to bully, instead of negotiate. How typical of your kind.”

“And how typical that you would barter with a child’s life,” Teyla shot back. She’d reacted like a mother bear separated from her cub when she learned about the baby, and about Claria’s threats. “Have the Wraith not taken enough from us?” 

“Athosians,” Claria said with a sneer. “Farmers. Your people have as much right to the city of the Ancients, and yet you don’t fight for it.”

“We do not need to. My people have a place there whenever we desire it.”

Claria made a move towards her weapon, but Ronon was quicker to pull out his blaster. Rodney didn’t ask what setting he had it on.

“Let’s be civil,” Ronon growled.

“We came for the baby,” Sheppard said. “And his mother.”

“She didn’t survive the birthing.”

Rodney didn’t know why that made his chest tight. It wasn’t as if he even knew who the woman was, although he had a vague, alcohol-infused memory of long blonde hair and a tinkling laugh like wind chimes. Dr. Ramesh hadn’t been able to help him remember more than that.

“Then we’ll take the baby,” Sheppard said amiably.

“The conditions of the exchange were clear, Colonel. Atlantis for the son of Dr. McKay.”

Rodney wondered what was going through Claria’s head. She couldn’t honestly think they’d agree to that. People like her would use the city to subjugate and rule; she wasn’t interested in knowledge, or trade, or building alliances. In the battle against the Wraith, with Atlantis being the galaxy’s best strategic stronghold, she was putting an awful lot of expectation on Rodney’s hypothetical paternal feelings.

“And yet I don’t see the baby. Whatever happened to good faith?”

Claria turned and nodded at her people, who’d formed a wall behind her. The three men and two woman moved aside to reveal a hand-woven basket, and a baby almost completely hidden from view due to the way he was swaddled.

Rodney stared at what little he could see, and waited to feel…something. A connection. Some sort of paternal instinct. But there was nothing. He exchanged a look with Sheppard, who was still unreadable behind those sunglasses.

And then Claria picked the baby up, and the baby started to cry in a small, surprisingly raspy voice, and everything faded away until _that’s my son_ was the only thing Rodney knew.

Several things happened at once. Rodney activated the personal shield he’d finally been able to charge and slapped it on his chest, surrounding himself in that old familiar green-tinted bubble. He ignored Sheppard’s biting command to stand down and walked toward Claria with intent. Sheppard called for Lorne, who uncloaked and deployed his team. Claria’s people, meanwhile, were trying to gun Rodney down but their bullets were stopped dead by the shield.

Rodney wrenched the guns out of the hands of the two nearest assholes, and then brought his P-90 up to bear on Claria so that the barrel was nearly pressed against her forehead.

“I’ll be taking my son,” he said.

*o*o*o*

Rodney and his team sat in the back of the ‘jumper, crowded around the baby. He’d finally stopped crying, and was blinking up at all of them with his tiny brow wrinkled. Rodney couldn’t stop staring at him. The last baby he’d held in his arms was Torren, and he’d been so much bigger.

“He seems small. Do you think he’s too small?”

“He looks very healthy to me,” Teyla said. The baby had one hand wrapped around her thumb, and she had a very soft, maternal expression on her face. “He is strong.”

“I think he’s got your mouth.” Sheppard had finally taken off the sunglasses, and Rodney couldn’t quite quantify the look he was giving the baby.

Ronon nodded. “Yeah, I see it. His hair is really light.”

Not that there was much off it, just wispy blonde fuzz. “In my baby pictures my hair’s the same color,” Rodney said.

What else did he share with the baby? Would he be allergic to citrus? Have a genius IQ? A sarcastic tongue?

Rodney looked at his team, his family, saw the way they were looking at the little baby in his arms, and he knew one thing his son would have that he never did, not until he came to Atlantis: love.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** This part of AJ’s story was a long time coming. The prompt inspired me to switch up my original idea, and have AJ need to be rescued instead of having him just presented to Rodney. Still, I must’ve started writing this ten times and got nowhere.
> 
> And then I got the notification for Popkin’s birthday and I was finally motivated to finish this so I could gift it to her. Not quite a birthday fic, but close enough. ::grins:: And I know how much she likes AJ.
> 
> I still remember the moment I felt like a mom. It was my second night at the hospital after my c-section, and the nurse asked if I wanted my son to sleep in the room with me. I said no. I was relieved to send him back to the nursery. And then like an hour later I could hear him crying down the hall. Even after so short a time being acquainted with this new little person, I knew his raspy crying voice. And I had the nurse bring him back, and that was it. I was a mom. ::grins::


End file.
